WORKING WHILE WEAK

You’re likely familiar with the noteworthy life of Corrie ten Boom and her family during World War II. (Our outing today is in her hometown of Haarlem.) If not, consider taking time this month to read The Hiding Place. You’ll be inspired and emboldened, and you might also be tempted to think, “Well, I’m not a war hero. I don’t have a story like that to help people.”

If so, allow me to introduce you to Ellen de Kroon Stamps.

Like Corrie, Ellen was born in Holland and lived through the tumultuous years of WWII. Her strained wartime childhood was so intense it likely contributed to her inability to speak until she was five years old. Corrie and Ellen lived near each other, though they weren’t acquainted. Corrie was a woman in her 50s running a Dutch Resistance ring, while Ellen was a small child searching along the roadside for something to eat.  

After the war, Ellen's life went on, though the years had taken a heavy toll on her country and family. 

In her early twenties, Ellen came to know Jesus and soon began to wonder if she should use her nursing training as a missionary. She planned for the role and was close to embarking on her journey when she received an unexpected invitation: tea with an old woman in her town named Corrie ten Boom.

Ellen quickly learned the invitation was more than a social visit. Corrie, now in her seventies and with no immediate family, had been praying for God to send a faithful young woman to assist with her global ministry. Ellen’s name had been recommended by a mutual friend.

Though happy to share a cup of tea, Ellen was rather averse to joining her. She was just a normal girl enjoying her friends, her hospital job, and she was already preparing to go abroad. On top of that, she struggled with foreign languages, couldn’t type, didn't have a driver’s license, and was a very new Christian. She was absolutely certain Corrie had the wrong girl.

When Ellen presented her list of inadequacies, Corrie surprisingly agreed: “Ellen, I’m happy you know it. You cannot do it. But God can do it through you.”

Ellen didn’t have the credentials but Corrie believed that the Holy Spirit would supply what she needed. She saw in Ellen a humble heart, willing to serve. They would rely on the Lord together.

So, after a bit more deliberation, Ellen left her hospital job and her beloved Holland to travel the world with a tenacious woman who lived utterly surrendered to the Lord’s leading. Step by step, Ellen learned English, practiced typing, and, much to her own surprise, passed her driver’s test. She carried bags, booked rooms, and bought tickets. 

For the next decade, Corrie and Ellen were rarely apart. Praying continually for guidance, they traveled to almost every continent, visited hundreds of towns, and held thousands of meetings.

Before long, Ellen realized her role wasn't merely to stand in the wings. As inadequate and unpracticed as she felt, she was also called to share the good news. So she just began to do it, however awkward it felt at first. She struck up conversations with flight attendants, cab drivers, and the people who hosted them, quickly finding that everyone has a story and many of those stories are painful. She began to see every moment as an opportunity to share the love of Christ. 

Occasionally, Corrie was sick or too exhausted for a speaking engagement and she would ask Ellen to stand in for her. What began as a horrifying prospect for Ellen became a realization: the Lord’s power shines through weak vessels.

Whenever Corrie felt led to a new city, she trusted God for the details. It was not unusual for them to land in a foreign place with no contacts or pre-arranged meetings. After finding a room, Corrie, tired from travel, might lie down for a quick nap and ask her young assistant to "Go find the Christians."

At first, Ellen was baffled. Just walk outside and find the Christians? Where? How?

Yet what seemed impossible proved far from it. Ellen developed a knack for stepping out onto unfamiliar streets and finding believers. She discovered as she walked past townspeople that the elderly, especially, could often point her toward a local church simply by hearing the name "Jesus Christ." Once there, she would introduce herself, forge a connection, and unlock doors for their ministry.

Ellen’s memoir, My Years with Corrie, is a story of faithfulness and courage. God isn't searching for the most influential, power-connected, or polished people to carry His love into the world. He looks at us. We, who are behind on laundry and who haven’t gone to seminary, and who are waiting until we have it all together. In a dark world, our calling is simply to carry the flame of His love into the immediate space around us.

Ellen eventually met an American minister at one of Corrie’s speaking engagements, and they married soon after. Leaving Corrie was difficult, and moving off the global stage changed Ellen’s routine, but her life remained deeply faithful and fruitful. In the 50 years since, Ellen has continued to love, mentor, and minister right where God placed her, the same small everyday sphere most of us inhabit. She simply kept carrying the light of God's love, and she’s left a glowing trail behind her.

When asked in a recent phone conversation what she’d like to share with a younger generation of women, Ellen replied: Simplicity. 

She went on to discuss how it’s hard to discern how God wants to use us uniquely when we’re cramming life with all the same things as our friends and neighbors and people online. We must recognize that we’re individuals with a unique and important calling, but it’s hard to hear from the Lord when our lives are so jam-packed. 

“If we as women are put in a place where God wants us to blossom and to be an example of his love, then it always comes back to simplicity.”

Simplify schedule, media, purchases, plans. Create space to listen and to act. 

Ellen is still simplifying today, clearing out unnecessary noise to discern direction for each precious day right in front of her. She’s passed the age Corrie was when they roamed the world together and, even as her body weakens, she presses on with that same resolve to serve in the strength of the Lord. She’s seen how He can shine through broken vessels. Our own weakness is an opportunity.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12: 9-10 (ESV)